Dallas: Didn’t anyone ever tell you that denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, John Ross? (My thoughts on episode 3x06 “Like Father, Like Son)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. The biggest highlight of this episode for me personally would be all of the scenes featuring John Ross, who spent the episode desperately trying to keep the Arctic lease deal alive by scheming with various people throughout the course of the episode. His primary strategy was to suggest to Christopher, Bobby, Pamela and Sue Ellen that they take Ewing Global public. He originally got the idea from an old friend of his, Hunter McKay, and Nicolas, who both told him that they became rich by originally buying controlling interest in a company, so John Ross set out to do the same thing. He thought that he had managed to get enough support from Nicolas, Pamela and Sue Ellen, but when the time came to vote Sue Ellen voted against taking the company public, so his plan ultimately failed.

If that wasn’t enough trouble for John Ross to deal with, Sue Ellen continued to tell John Ross that he was acting just like J.R. by cheating on Pamela with Emma and his secretary Candice, but he made it clear to her that there was nothing going with Candice. Candice did try to make a move on John Ross at one point in the episode though, but he rejected her advances. Throughout the episode he repeatedly told Sue Ellen that he’s not J.R., but personally his attempts to convince her that he’s not just like J.R. were about as convincing as Jim Parsons’ attempt to convince everybody that he’s not Sheldon when he was hosting Saturday Night Live, which weren’t even the tiniest bit convincing. After all, in his opening monologue he talked a lot about how he’s nothing like his character on The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper. He even sang a song about how he’s not Sheldon, where the lyrics consisted primarily of him singing “I’m not that guy” over and over, only to act just like Sheldon in pretty much every sketch that he appeared in throughout the episode. I’m now convinced that Jim Parsons is pretty much just being himself when he’s playing Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, which in my mind shows that despite all of the awards that he’s either won or been nominated for, he has a very limited range in terms of his acting ability. That really makes me wonder what will happen with Jim Parsons’ acting career once The Big Bang Theory eventually ends, but I digress.

Speaking of bad acting and characters that annoy the hell out of me, while I’m willing to admit that for the past several episodes Christopher hadn’t been annoying me nearly as much as he did last season, he unfortunately found a whole new way to annoy the hell out of me that didn’t even involve him talking or threatening to have someone sent to jail in this episode. Towards the beginning of the episode, Bobby told John Ross that he was giving his shares in Ewing Global to Christopher, because now that he’s serving as the interim Texas railroad commissioner regulations dictate that he can’t own any shares in a company. What made Christopher so annoying in that scene is the way that he stood in the background with an incredibly obnoxious smirk on his face the entire time Bobby was telling John Ross this.

Dallas: Episode 2x12 "A Call to Arms" and Episode 2x13 "Love and Family" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's 2-hour episode, episode 2x12 "A Call to Arms" and episode 2x13 "Love and Family". It looks like next week's episodes are going to be absolutely awesome. :)

Dallas: Wow! It must really suck to be Ann Ewing right now (My thoughts on episode 2x05 “Trial and Error”)

As I said in my review for the first four episodes of the season (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”) I’ve actually been enjoying season two of Dallas more than I loved the first season, which was an awful lot, and that continues to be the case with this episode. This was definitely the best episode yet of season two in a lot of ways. Although, there were a few things about the episode that I found somewhat disappointing, they are only fairly minor complaints, which I’ll get to later.

One of the reasons why I’ve been enjoying season two even more than I enjoyed season one is that I feel the writers have really been doing a lot of the things that I wish they had done in season one. One of them being that I really wanted the writers to give the viewers just a little bit more information about Ann’s past so I could better understand her behavior at times, and they’ve really delivered when it comes to that aspect of the season. While the writers had already revealed some more details about Ann’s past in the first four episodes of the season, this episode really delve deep into Ann’s backstory and finally answered a lot of the questions that I’ve had about Ann, such as how Sue Ellen and Ann met each other and became friends. They apparently met when Ann did volunteer work for one of the foundations that Sue Ellen started for battered and abused women.

Ann also mentioned that she grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money and never went to college, which is something Judith had apparently given her a hard time about when she was married to Harris. It sounds like Harris did treat her very well and was very generous with her when they first met. It was only after Judith met Ann and started to interfere in Ann and Harris’ marriage that the relationship between Ann and Harris took a turn for the worse. Apparently, Ann had been diagnosed with post partum depression after Emma was born, and she admitted that she’d taken more pills than she should have the day Harris kidnapped Emma at the fair. She also described herself as being a very awkward girl when she was growing up, saying that her mother had actually taken her to see doctors in order to see if they could find a way to make her stop growing. I can’t help, but wonder if that line was some kind of dig from the writers about the fact that Brenda Strong is really tall.

I have to say that I thought Brenda Strong’s acting in this episode was fantastic, especially when Ann was being questioned on the stand. I’ve always thought that Brenda was a great actress. She did a great job playing the role of Sue Ellen Mischke on Seinfeld, and she always did a fantastic job of narrating Desperate Housewives as Mary Alice Young, but I’ve been especially enjoying her work on Dallas. If you ask me, she should definitely consider submitting this episode for Emmy consideration. 

One thing that really surprised me about this episode was how quickly the whole thing with Ann confessing to being the one who shot Harris, as well as being tried and convicted unfolded all in the same episode. I know that some people were wondering if the writers and producers combined footage from several different episodes to make one episode in order to accommodate having to write Larry Hagman/J.R.’s death into the show on fairly short notice, but I don’t think that’s the case here. If they had combined several different episodes worth of footage to make up the episode, I’m pretty sure that the episode would have credited more writers then they usually do for an episode, as well as list two directors in the credits. I suppose it’s possible that they could have combined two or more episodes that just happened to all be written and directed by the same people, but I don’t think that’s the case here, especially since the producers previously said that Larry Hagman had filmed six episodes for season two before he died, and the episode that’s airing this week is apparently Larry Hagman’s final episode. For whatever reason, it looks like the writers decided to jump ahead one month about ten minutes into the episode so they get right to having Ann’s trial.

Dallas: Revenge might be having a sophomore slump, but four episodes in; this show is soaring higher than ever before (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”)

Before Dallas premiered on TNT back in June of 2012, I found myself thinking that this show in combination with ABC’s Revenge would be able to quench my constant craving for nighttime soap operas, and together they both did during their first seasons. However, as many people, both TV critics and viewers, have been saying, Revenge is having a major sophomore slump both creatively and in the ratings department.

In the case of TNT’s Dallas, however, it’s been able to avoid suffering the dreaded sophomore slump on the creative end of things. It’s true the ratings are down this season, but I’ve read a lot of comments online from people who are saying that they believe that the ratings being down has more to do with the fact that this season is airing during the regular TV season, meaning it has more competition to deal with from broadcast networks, whereas the first season aired during the summer with less competition. Brenda Strong addressed this in a recent interview that I read, and it sounds like TNT wants to branch out and start airing more shows during the regular season. According to her, it sounds like TNT is hoping to have Dallas pioneer that effort and expected the ratings for the second season to be lower since it’s airing during the regular TV season. Since she said that, I’m not too terribly worried for the time being that the show won’t be renewed for a third season. Perhaps they will renew it for a third season and simply decide to only air the show during the summer in future, but I’m not sure what the TNT network executives are thinking about the show’s ratings though.

As much as I loved the first season, I have to say that I think the second season has been even better in a lot of ways so far. For starters, none of the episodes have felt like filler episodes so far, which is always a good thing for TV shows if you ask me. There also isn’t the repetitive back and forth scheming regarding the future of Southfork like there was last season where John Ross and J.R. would have the upper hand one episode, and then Christopher and Bobby would have the upper hand the following episode, which often made me feel like the storyline wasn’t moving forward all that much. That was the main thing that made several of the season one episodes felt like filler to me. When it comes to season two, however, each episode has felt like it’s progressing the storylines and have all been full of excitement so far. Season two has also featured several very interesting storyline developments. My favorite storyline development would be the fact that John Ross and Pamela/Rebecca, have formed a business agreement as a part of a plan to get some of Christopher’s shares in Ewing Energy shares and have also become romantically involved with each other in the process, which I’ll talk about some more in a moment.

Dallas TNT--Linda Gray 2012-TVLine

Here's an article by TVLine's Michael Ausiello, which gives a preview of the upcoming Dallas update TV series on TNT, with some scoop on the show directly from Linda Gray. In the article, Gray also talks about the producers of the original Dallas' reaction to her cutting her hair at beginning of season 6. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives some scoop on what will be happening with Sue Ellen in the first season of the Dallas update series:



Gray’s ‘do is back to its original length in the Dallas reboot (premiering June 13), one of the only characteristics new Sue Ellen shares with the old. J.R.’s long-suffering alcoholic wife is now a big-shot politician who gets drunk on power instead of booze. Of course, she’s just one sip away from a relapse, right?

“She’s been there, done that,” Gray insists of Sue Ellen’s unhealthy relationship with the bottle. “A lot of women in the ’80s didn’t communicate as well as they do now; they didn’t embrace their power. If they were in a dysfunctional marriage like Sue Ellen was, they stayed. Times have changed though. It’s now acceptable to tackle your demons, wrestle them to the ground, and change your life. So I don’t feel that she would be drinking again. She probably went to AA and got her stuff together.”



Link to the full article:Dallas TNT -- Linda Gray 2012 - TVLine



My thoughts: I've only seen the first episode of the original Dallas TV series, but I'm really looking forward to TNT's update of Dallas. I've always loved soap operas and nighttime soap operas, so this show looks right up my alley. Plus, all of the previews that I've seen for it look great. I've also been thinking about blogging about the show when it starts.